Diagonal blade gunsight



Feb. 17, 1970 J. E. ULLMAN DIAGONAL BLADE GUNSIGHT 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed May 22, 1968 INVENTOR. JOHN E. ULLMAN Feb. 17, 1970 Filed May 22, 1968 ail [1 J. E. ULLMAN DIAGONAL BLADE GUNSIGHT FIG. IO.

PIC-3.13.

5 Sheets-Sheet 2 JOHN E. ULLMAN J. E. ULLMAN DIAGONAL BLADE GUNSIGHT Feb. 17, 1970 Filed May 22, 1968 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 FIG. l4.

FIG. 20.

INVENTR. JOHN E. ULLMAN 3,495,338 DIAGONAL BLADE GUNSIGHT John E. Ullman, 2815 Edge Hill Road, Huntingdon Valley, Pa. 19006 Filed May 22, 1968, Ser. No. 731,072 Int. Cl. F41g 1/42, 11/00 US. Cl. 33-47 9 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A gunsight adapted to give a highly visible image to the sighting eye of a shooter and to give almost no image to the other eye so as to permit the shooter to keep both eyes open while shooting, comprising a thin blade having a front surface and a rear surface and an edge, a base plate supporting the blade and adapted to mount the blade on a gun barrel in such position that the sighting eye sees a projection of the front surface of the blade and the other eye sees the edge of the blade.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to gunsights, and more particularly concerns a gunsight which permits the shooter to keep both eyes open while shooting and prevents the sighting eye from being overpowered by the other eye.

When shooting at moving targets with a shotgun such as in skeet shooting, trap shooting, or in hunting game, it is desirable to keep both eyes open because it gives the shooter an increased field of vision, better distance perception through stereo-optical effect, and enables the shooter to locate the target more quickly, etc.

If the right eye of a right-handed shooter is the dominant or lead eye and is stronger than the other eye, the shooter may have little difficulty in keeping the other eye open and may not be troubled by seeing a double vision at the end of his gun. However, if the left eye of a righthanded shooter is the dominant or lead eye, the left eye may take over from the sighting right eye so that the shooter sees a double image of his gun barrel or may improperly sight down the barrel or the front gunsight bead with his left eye instead of the sighting eye and this will cause an error in shooting. Such dominant other eye shooters find it difiicult to shoot with both eyes open and are forced to close the other eye in order to avoid confusion, thereby decreasing their field of vision, losing some distance perception, and picking up the target more slowly.

The situation is the same for a left-handed shooter. If the left eye of a left-handed shooter is the dominant or lead eye, he usually has little difficulty in sighting with his left eye. However, if the right eye of the left-handed shooter is the dominant eye, he also may have difficulty in shooting with both eyes open.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of this invention to provide a gunsight which overcomes the problems of the prior art and permits a right-handed shooter to shoot with both eyes open even though his left eye may be the dominant one, and permits a left-handed shooter to shoot with both eyes open even though his right eye may dominate.

It is also an object of this invention to provide a vivid, easily seen sight which can be used without causing confusion to normal shooters whose eyes and hands match, being either both right sided or both left sided.

The objects of this invention are accomplished by providing a diagonal blade gunsight which is easily discernible and highly visible to the sighting or aiming eye, but is practically invisible to the other eye. The gunsight 3,495,338 Patented Feb. 17, 1970 blade is mounted on a diagonal to the gun barrel so that a projection of the inside surface, which may be brightly colored, is visible to the sighting eye, but is invisible to the other eye which sees only the darkened, dull edge of the blade or perhaps a small portion of the blackened, dull rear surface of the blade. The width of the projection of the front surface of the blade seen by the sighting eye may be varied by controlling the position and the length of the blade.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Other objects and advantages of the invention, including its simplicity and economy, will further become apparent hereinafter and in the drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a view in top plan of a shotgun and shows a right-handed shooter sighting with his right eye over a conventional bead sight towards the target;

FIG. 2 is a view in top plan of a shotgun equipped with a diagonal blade gunsight constructed in accordance with this invention and shows a right-handed shooter sighting with his right eye over the inventive diagonal blade gunsight towards the target;

FIG. 3 is a view in side elevation of the gun and gunsight shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 shows the line of sight as seen from the right eye of the shooter in FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 shows the line of sight as seen from the left eye of the shooter in FIG. 1 when the right eye is sighting properly as shown in FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 shows the left eye view and line of sight when the left eye improperly takes over from the right sighting eye;

FIG. 7 is the line of sight from the right eye in FIG. 2 when the gun is being aimed properly at the target;

FIG. 8 is the line of sight from the left eye in FIG. 2 when the gun is being sighted properly as shown in FIG. 7;

FIG. 9 is an enlarged view in top plan of another embodiment of the inventive gunsight;

FIG. 10 is a view in side elevation of the gunsight of FIG. 9;

FIG. 11 is a view in top plan of an alternative embodiment of gunsight constructed in accordance with this invention;

FIG. 12 is a view in side elevation of the gunsight of FIG. 11;

FIG. 13 is a view of the line of sight of the sighting eye of the shooter looking down the barrel to the gunsight of FIG. 10;

FIG. 14 is a view in side elevation of another embodiment of a gunsight constructed in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 15 is a view of the line of sight of the sighting eye of the shooter looking down the gun barrel to the gunsight of FIG. 14;

FIG. 16 is a view in side elevation of another embodi ment of the inventive gunsight;

FIG. 17 is a view of the line of sight of the sighting eye of the shooter looking down the gun barrel to the gunsight of FIG. 16;

FIG. 18 is a view in side elevation of another embodiment of the inventive gunsight;

FIG. 19 is a view of the line of sight of the sighting eye of the shooter looking down the gun barrel to the gunsight of FIG. 18;

FIG. 20 is a view in side elevation of another embodiment of the inventive gunsight; and

FIG. 21 is a view of the line of sight of the sighting eye of the shooter looking down the gun barrel to the gunsight of FIG. 20.

3 DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Turning now to the specific embodiments of the invention selected for illustration in the drawings, there is shown in FIG. 1 a shotgun 21 having a barrel 22, a ventilated sighting rib 23, a muzzle 24, and a front sighting bead 25.

A shooter 27 has a right eye 28 that sights along a line of sight 31 which passes along the sighting rib 23 and front bead towards a target 32. This is the proper line of sight for aiming at the target that is moving directly away from the shooter, and this movement of the target has been chosen to simplify the explanation of the invention. Line of sight 31 is shown looking from the rear in FIG. 4 to illustrate the bead 25 and rib 23 in line with the target 32.

The proper view from left eye 33 may be along the line of sight to the target and this is illustrated from the rear in FIG. 5. It is to be noted that the proper left eye view shows the target along line-of-sight 35 and front bead along line-of-sight 34 with these elements not being in line. It also should be noted that no conscious attention should be paid to the head by the left eye, but rather the left eye should focus on the target 32.

However, if the left eye 33 is the dominant eye, the view from left eye 33 is along line-of-sight 35 to front bead 25. The left eye lines up the front bead 25 with the target 32 along line-of-sight 35 as shown in FIG. 1 in phantom lines. It will be noted that the shotgun when lined-up or aimed in this manner will shoot to the left of the target. This improper view of the line-of-sight 35 is also shown from the rear in FIG. 6 which shows that the front bead 25 is in line with target 32 for the left eye line-of-sight.

FIGS. 2 and 3 disclose a shotgun 37 being aimed by a right-handed shooter 38 and having a barrel 41, sighting rib 42, a muzzle 43, and a diagonal blade gunsight 44 mounted on rib 42. Gunsight 44 may be mounted on rib 42 by an adhesive or by one or more small screws.

Right eye 46 of shooter 38 is the sighting eye and it looks down a line-of-sight 47 to see a projection of the front surface of gunsight 44 in line with a target 48. This line-of-sight view is shown from the rear in FIG. 7 which illustrates the rectangular projection 51 of the front surface of the gunsight.

The line-of-sight 52 from the other or left eye 53 is along the edge 54 of the blade of the gunsight and this appears from the rear as shown in FIG. 8.

Accordingly, the other or left eye 53 of shooter 38 is not distracted or attracted to a gunsight because it does not see the brightly colored front surface of the blade gunsight or any projection thereof.

Referring now to FIGS. 9 and 10, there is shown a diagonal blade gunsight mounted on rib 55 of gun barrel 56 and comprising a base plate 57 which supports and is attached to an upright blade 58 having a front surface 59, a rear edge 60, and a rear surface 61. It is to be noted that blade 58 is higher on the muzzle end and that the top edge slopes downwardly toward the stock end of the gun in order to project a true rectangle to the sighting eye of the shooter when viewed in perspective.

Front surface 59 may be colored with a bright color paint or with a fluorescent paint, whereas rear edge 60, top edge 67, surface 61 and all other visible surfaces are colored a dull black or some other equally unattractive shade.

Gunsight 45 may be adjusted so that the other eye of the shooter has a line-of-sight along blade 58 by providing a pivotal clamping screw 68 with a nut 69 having its centerline in the plane of the front surface 59 of blade 58. To adjust the position of gunsight 45 for shooters having their eyes spaced apart as various distances, the gunsight 45 may be turned about the axis of the screw 68 until the blade 58 is properly positioned with respect to the other eye of the shooter. Typical means to accomplish this arrangement would be to have the screw portion as a threaded stud integral with the base 57 of the sight 45 and to have this stud project through the rib at a place where there is a ventilating space 70. A thin nut 69 is then used to tighten on the screw and clamp the sight to the rib at the proper angle.

FIGS. 11 and 12 show a gunsight 62 mounted on a rib 63 of a gun barrel 64. Gunsight 62 is a simple stamped one-piece unit having a blade 65 and a pair of base plates 66 and 67 which are turned at right angles from blade 65 and are adapted to be mounted on the rib of the gun through adjusting slots 72 by means of clamping screws 74.

In operation, the shooter sights along the projection from the blade of the gunsight and the other eye cannot see the gunsight except for thin edge 60 and is attracted therefore only to the target so that shooters heretofore unable to use both eyes can now do so.

If desired, the blade may be provided with an aiming notch or an aiming point or semicircle. A blade may be provided which simulates the top half of the outline of the shot pattern of the gun at a given distance, such as at 35 yards, which may be considered a typical distance at which clay birds are broken when shooting trap from 16 yards.

FIG. 14 is a view in side elevation of a gunsight 76 mounted on a sighting rib 78 of a gun barrel 80 and includes a blade 82 having a curved upper edge 84 so that its projection 86 appears as the upper half of a circle in the line-of-sight view of FIG. 15. Projection '86 accordingly simulates the top portion of a pellet pattern from a shot gun indicating the width of the pattern and thereby helping the shooter to lead the target.

FIG. 16 shows a gunsight 88 including a wire 90 mounted on a sighting rib 92 of a shot gun barrel 94. Projection 96 of gunsight 88 is shown in FIG. 17 and as sumes the shape of a see-through semicircle which also simulates the top half of a pellet pattern. It is to be noted that forward portion 98 of wire 90 is higher than rear portion 100 so that the perspective projection 96 appears as a true semicircle.

FIG. 18 shows a gunsight 102 having a front blade 104 and a rear blade 106 and being mounted on a sighting rib 108 of a shot gun barrel 110. Projection 112 of gunsight 102 is shown in FIG. 19 and includes a V notch 114 which aids in aiming the shot gun.

FIG. 20 shows a gunsight 116 having a sloping front edge 118 and a sloping rear edge 120 and is mounted on a sighting rib 122 of gun barrel 124. FIG. 21 shows the projection 126 of gunsight 116 with edges 118 and 120 converging upwardly toward an apex 128.

When positioned correctly, the blade of the gunsight should line-up so as to present only its rear edge to the non-sighting eye and present a shaped projection of the blade to the sighting eye. Thus the gunsight can only be seen by the proper aiming eye, and the other eye, even if stronger than the aiming eye, will not take over the act of aiming the gun.

The diagonal blade gunsight of the present invention may be made of metal or it may also be made of a colored molded plastic which is fluorescent or translucent in nature to provide excellent luminousity, or a combination of both materials.

It is to be understood that the form of the invention herewith shown and described is to be taken as a presently preferred embodiment. Various changes may be made in the shape, size and arrangement of parts. For example, equivalent elements may be substituted for those illus trated and described herein, parts may be reversed, and certain features of the invention may be utilized in dependently of the use of other features.

What is claimed is:

1. A gunsight adapted to give a highly visible image to the sighting eye of a shooter and to give almost no image to the other eye so as to permit the shooter to keep both eyes open while shooting without confusion, comprising a thin blade member having a front surface and a substantially parallel rear surface and an edge connecting said front and rear surfaces and facing the shooter, means for supporting the blade member and for mounting the blade member on a gun barrel in such position that the front and rear surfaces, if extended in their respective planes, would both intersect the other eye so that the sighting eye sees the front surface of the blade member and the other eye sees the edge of the blade member.

2. The gunsight of claim 1 wherein said supporting and mounting means comprises a base plate connected to the bottom of the blade member.

3. The gunsight of claim 1 wherein the blade has a muzzle end and a stock end, and the front surface of the blade member is colored brightly, and the rear surface and edge are colored dully.

4. The gunsight of claim 1 wherein the muzzle end of the blade member is higher than the stock end of the blade member with the top edge of the blade member sloping downwardly towards the stock end, whereby the sighting eye of the shooter sees the blade as a rectangular area.

5. The gunsight of claim 1 wherein the blade member is made of a translucent material.

6. The gunsight of claim 1 wherein the blade member has a curved upper edge so that the sighting eye sees the blade as the upper half of a circle and thereby simulates the top portion of a shotgun pellet pattern.

7. The gunsight of claim 1 wherein the blade member comprises a front and rear blade having upper edges which slope downwardly toward each other so that the sighting eye see a V notch.

3. The gunsight of claim 1 wherein the blade member comprises front and rear edges which slope downwardly away from each other so that the sighting eye sees edges which converge upwardly toward an apex.

9. A gunsight adapted to give a highly visible image to the sighting eye of a shooter and gives almost no image to the other eye so as to permit the shooter to keep both eyes open while shooting without confusion, comprising an arcuately bent wire, means mounting said wire on a gun barrel substantially in a plane which includes the other eye of the shooter, said wire being bent so that it appears to the sighting eye in the shape of a semicircle and appears to the other eye as a thin elongated member.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,927,375 3/1960 Luebkeman. 2,207,857 7/1940 Gregory. 267,418 11/1882 Filbert.

LEONARD FORMAN, Primary Examiner STEVEN L. STEPHAN, Assistant Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R. 

